


Cute as a Kitten

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: 30 Minute Fic, Appleshipping, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Kittens, Pre-Series, Rin and Yugo are 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:44:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7428004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin is always bringing animals home to patch them up, but they never get to keep them.  Maybe Yugo can convince her to keep this one, at least?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cute as a Kitten

“Riiiiin, what did you bring home THIS TIME?”

He could tell that she had, in fact, brought something else home by the way that the garage smelled—kinda like burnt milk on the camp stove mixed with copious amounts of that air freshener stuff she dug out of garbage cans to hide whatever smoky mistake they made with the machines. She was always bringing little animals home when she found them hurt while rummaging through the junkyard. They never kept them for long, though; Rin always let them go again when they were patched up.

Rin's shoulders jumped from where he could see her hunched behind the rickety workbench, and her eyes peeped over the top of the counter with a guilty, half-lidded look.

“Um...nothing,” she said. “It's not anything. I just went to the junkyard and found some more stuff, but it didn't work so—so it smells bad.”

Yugo rolled his eyes. He dropped his duffel bag at the side of the door with a clank of scrap metal shoved inside before kicking his way across the room, picking around the discarded metal pieces.

“Rin, you know garage isn't a good place for animals—”

He reached her drawn shoulders and put his hands on his knees so that he could lean over her head to see.

The tiny gray tabby kitten peeped up from between Rin's hands, its fluffy, too-big-for-its-size paws perched over the tops of Rin's fingers. It stared at him with big green eyes.

“ _Mew,_ ” it squeaked.

Yugo just about fell over.

“Oh my god where did you find it it's so cute what's it's name are we keeping this one oh my gosh can I hold it??”

Rin sighed, but she lifted the kitten out of the cardboard box and handed it to Yugo. Yugo peeled his gloves off before taking the cat, feeling his entire body light up as his fingers found how soft it was. He cradled it against the crook of his arms, it's tiny paws up in the air. The cat stared at him. It didn't even wriggle, it seemed very curious about the fact that it was being held. Yugo opened his mouth to say something else but all that came out was a squeak.

“I found her in the junkyard; she cut her paw,” Rin said, sitting back on her hands. “I figured I could patch it up and give it some milk before letting it back out...”

“Riiiiin, it's so tiny, we have to keep this one at least!”

Rin blew out through her lips.

“Like you said, Yugo, the garage isn't a good place for animals,” she said, hugging her knees. “I want to keep them all too, but....we can't really take care of them for long, you know? That's why I didn't want you to see....”

Yugo stared up at Rin, trying to look as cute as the kitten. He wiggled the kitten's paw towards Rin.

“Rinnnnn. Pleaseeeeeeee,” he said. “Look at her! She's too tiny, we have to keep her til she gets bigger.”

“Yugo, no,” Rin said, although it was clear she was trying not too look too hard at the kitten _or_ him.

“We can call her Jackie after Jack Atlas.”

“Oh my god, Yugo.”

She actually snorted. Her still metal greased fingers pushed through her hair, leaving little streaks across her forehead and in the strands of her green hair. She held her bangs from her face as she glanced down at the kitten from the bottom of her eyes. Yugo pouted at her as he pet the kitten's belly with one finger—the kitten decided that this was a game and started to bat at his finger, gnawing at it with the side of her mouth.

“Jackie _is_ a cute name,” Rin finally said, a bit reluctantly.

“Yes!” Yugo said, punching the air with his free hand, knowing that he'd won. The kitten looked disappointed that the finger it had had been gnawing on was gone.

“But you have to help me, okay! Milk is expensive, and Kawasumi-sensei's not going to like us using some of our money on a cat, even if we're making it ourselves with the mechanical work. We can't let her wander around too much outside the garage and we have to watch her while we're working!”

“I know, I know, I know, I'll do all those things, don't worry!'

Yugo tickled the kitten's belly again and Jackie happily returned to chewing on his finger.

“It's so, so, so cute,” he said.

He didn't notice that Rin was looking at him instead of the kitten when she said,

“Yeah...it definitely is.”

 


End file.
